St Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic Church has a commanding position on the junction of Ham Common and Ham Street. It makes the most of this with its bright white coat that is clearly visible from the other side of the Common.

Hatch End is hard to find and harder to see. It is accessed via an alley off Ham Street (it's next to School Cottage) and is surrounded by high fences. I had no idea what it looked like until I saw this photo! All you can see from outside is the old roof so the clean modern look is bit of a surprise.

Good progress is being made on the new house at 15 Ham Common. The brickwork is very much in keeping with the local houses (unlike the brash Forbes House next door) and this looks as though it will be a worthy addition to the area.

There was a recent consultation on the planting in Great South Avenue (from Ham Common to Sandy Lane) which said lots about all the new plants but nothing about having to close this popular path for three months!!

Ham has a long border with the Thames that, broadly, flows north at this point. There are various views on where the boundaries of Ham are but as far as this blog is concerned the southern border is the Hawker Centre sports ground and the northern border is River Lane. Their are slip ways to the river on both borders and this boat is moored at the southern one.

Arrrrrgh! The plague of new black signs continues. This one duplicates one that is already there, renames this part of Ham Common to Ham Common Woods and is positioned such that it cannot be easily seen by people on foot, only by people on horse and, presumably, by horses.

5 December 2007

How could anybody think that it was a good idea to put a small black sign that says simply "Ham Lands - Local Nature Reserve" immediately below a large white sign that says the same thing and a lot more too?

The wild woody part of Ham Lands immediately north of Thames Young Mariners has a maze of paths through the trees. It is very easy to lose all sense of direction and so emerge from the woods nowhere near where you thought that you were.

The German School attracts sufficient Germans to the area for there to be a successful German shop in the parade in Ashburnham Road by St Richard church. There is now a second Backhaus a few doors away which sells an impressive range of breads.

4 December 2007

Ham Lands, although it is a contiguous area of open space, has several distinct parts and the part that I like the most is that immediately north of Thames Young Mariners, and I like it because it is the most wild part. Therfore I consider it an act of wanton destruction to cut this wide swathe through it, just to recreate a historical view from Richmond Hill.